Dr. Blair had just ascertained that Jim and his "sister" were strangers, traveling toward New York, and had offered to drive them both to the trolley line in his little car, when the woman of the house reappeared with Lou, and Jim stared with all his eyes. Could this be the little scarecrow of a girl he had met on the road only five days before; this unbelievably tall, slender young woman in the dark blue silk gown with filmy ruffles falling about her neck and wrists, and soft puffs of blond hair over her ears? "It's me, though I kin hardly believe it myself!" Lou answered his unspoken thought. Then drawing him aside she added: "Mis' Tooker--that's her name--gave me a pair of shoes, too, an' a hat an' five whole dollars! Are we goin' to a place called Pelton?" Jim nodded. "That is where I hoped we would be by to-night, but it must be at least twelve miles away." "Well, Mis' Tooker says the trolley goes right into Pelton, and she gave me a letter to a friend of hers there who'll take us in for the night----" The doctor interrupted with an intimation of another patient to be visited, and they bade farewell to the grateful young couple and started away. The sun was still high, and save for the mud which splashed up with each turn of the wheels, all traces of the storm had vanished. "Jennie Tooker always was a fool!" Dr. Blair grumbled. "How many babies have you taken care of, young woman?" "More'n twenty, I guess, off an' on," Lou responded. "I--I used to work in an institootion up-State." Fearing further revelations, Jim hastily took a hand in the conversation, and he and the doctor chatted until the trolley line was reached. There, when they had descended from the little car Lou turned to Jim and asked a trifle shyly: "You--you're goin' to let me ask you to ride, aren't you? You bought all the food in Riverburgh, you know." "And you seem to have financed all the rest of the trip," he said with a rueful laugh. "I thought, when you suggested that we should travel together, I would be the one to take care of you, but it has been the other way around. Oh, Lou, I've so much to say to you when we reach our journey's end!" They arrived at Pelton before dark and found Mrs. Tooker's friend, who ran a small boarding-house for store employees, and was glad to take them in at a dollar a head. Lou disappeared after supper, and although Lou waited long for him on the little porch, he did not return until through sheer fatigue she was forced to go to bed. In the morning, however, when they met before breakfast in the lower hall he jingled a handful of silver in his pocket. "However did you git it?" she demanded. "Garage," he responded succinctly. "Didn't know I was a chauffeur, did you, Lou?" A peculiar little smile hovered for a moment about her lips, but she merely remarked: "I thought you wouldn't only take a quarter----"